What it’s like to go plane spotting next to Heathrow

Cathy Adams makes the jump to full-on avgeek with a trip to Britain’s noisiest street

There isn’t much to see if you come out of Hatton Cross Tube station onto the Great South West Road, but there is plenty to hear.

Besides the dual carriageway full of buses and lorries ferrying to and from Heathrow, there are planes roaring constantly overhead, flying so low they cast shadows onto the road and the local BP garage forecourt.

The only previous reason I’ve ever gone through the ticket barriers at Hatton Cross was to visit British Airways’ headquarters. Today I’m off to Myrtle Avenue, ground zero for international aviation enthusiasts. I’ve always been interested in planes – although I’m usually much more likely to take one than just watch one – but have never taken the leap to full-on plane spotter without... going anywhere.

This typical suburban residential street, all 1930s-style semis with neat driveways, doesn’t look out of the ordinary. It’s full of estate cars, and on this blue-sky day, residents are out on the driveways fixing their bikes, washing their vehicles, gardening. But poor Myrtle Avenue is the image you’ll often see next to headlines like, “Is this Britain’s noisiest street?”

At the end of this cul-de-sac is a small patch of grass, next to the dual carriageway, frequented by dedicated plane enthusiasts all armed with foldable chairs, notebooks and serious-looking cameras. This grassy area is about as close as you can get to Heathrow airport without buying a ticket and its been the best plane-spotting location ever since the official Heathrow viewing area closed.

Indeed, from this nondescript patch of grass, occasionally dotted with a suburban tree, there’s an almost unrivalled view of the planes landing into Europe’s busiest airport about 200 metres away. Perhaps the newspaper headlines had a point: it’s pretty noisy.

Myrtle Avenue in Hounslow, ground zero for aviation geeks (Cathy Adams)

Armed with a picnic blanket, sandwiches and a fully-charged phone to check FlightRadar24 (which gives a live feed showing what’s flying overhead – an essential app for every plane spotter), we sat down on the grass and waited.

But not for long. Every 90 seconds a plane appears behind Myrtle Avenue’s houses to land at Heathrow (with the same frequency for take-offs), the equivalent to a dizzying 1,400 landings and take-offs every day – or almost half a million a year. And if the controversial Heathrow expansion goes ahead, that number will increase by 59 per cent to 756,000.

Myrtle Avenue (Cathy Adams)

Fellow plane spotters at Myrtle Avenue (Cathy Adams)

Myrtle Avenue is only a good place to plane spot when aircraft land onto Heathrow’s south runway. We’d checked the landing schedule earlier – planes typically arrive on the south runway and take off from the north until 3pm, then they switch (to give Myrtle Avenue’s ears some respite, I imagine). This can change for maintenance or bad weather.

And gosh, watching the planes come into land was deafeningly thrilling.

I estimated around seven out of every eight planes were British Airways. We almost got the full fleet: narrow-body Airbus A321s and A320s from Europe, all the way to long-range Boeing 777s from America and Asia. I even spied one of its A380s, the biggest commercial passenger plane in the world, but not a single of its ageing Boeing 747s. Shame.

Myrtle Avenue (Cathy Adams)

The Gulf superjumbos were the most thrilling (Cathy Adams)

What we were all waiting for were the jumbos. The A380s from the Gulf carriers Etihad, Qatar and Emirates got the most plane spotters reaching for their phones (and in some cases, long-range cameras). Their gargantuan size – they can carry up to 853 passengers each – meant a roar as they came into land and a chance to look closely at the underside of each. (Did you know Abu Dhabi-based Etihad paints the underside of its planes gold?)

Myrtle Avenue (Cathy Adams)

Planes appear from over the houses (Cathy Adams)

Given the majority of planes landing were in British Airways colours, I was on the lookout for other carriers. I spied a black and white Air New Zealand Boeing 777 from Los Angeles (it flies from Auckland to London via LAX); an MEA jet from Beirut with the Lebanese emblem of a green tree emblazoned on the side; and a colourful TAP jet from Portugal. We even spotted a tiny De Havilland Dash 8-400 turboprop plane, belonging to domestic airline Flybe – which after the Emirates A380 looked like a Russian doll version of an aircraft.

Walking back to the station from Myrtle Avenue, I found an even more thunderous spot. About midway along Hatton Road, the planes belt past almost overhead. The moment one passes, look into the distance and you’ll see at least three aircraft stacked up neatly, lights blinking. Watching this air traffic control puzzle is every bit as exhilarating as seeing them actually come into land. Perhaps I am a plane spotter after all...

Top tips for plane spotting on Myrtle Avenue

1. Check to make sure that planes are landing on Heathrow’s south runway.
2. Don’t drive there – most other plane spotters have the same idea. Myrtle Avenue is a five-minute walk from Hatton Cross London Underground station.
3. There is a toilet in the BP garage opposite Hatton Cross station, which also has a Subway and snacks (important information if you’ve been there for hours).
4. Wait for a clear day, so the planes are visible.